This is fairly urgent - we're due to meet in around 1/2 hour with the new owner of the next door adjoined semi who has 'bought to rent'.

My husband and I are wildlife photographers and have the garden set up to be wildlife friendly - my OH sells stock photography and we have a hide in the garden for this reason.

We have a colony of house sparrows that are pretty dependent on our habitat and the mature 50 year old privet hedge to the left of the hide. House sparrows are now on the RSPB endangered list. According to the deeds of the house we own this hedge.

Apparently, so the workman says, the new owner wants to erect a 6 foot fence the other side of our hedge and wants to 'cut back' first. He says this will be esier to maintain for the potential new lessees of the property. This doesn't ring true as the hedge is around 8-9 foot high and has always been maintained by us.

I am worried that he will damage the hedge by digging into the roots - and even if he doesn't I fear that a fence pushed against the hedge will block the light and air and eventually cause the demise of this lovely and very important hedge.

It is not only important to wild life (which is continually marginalised by 'labour saving' garden work) but to our financial circumstances.

Your neighbour can cut back all that encroaches over his land back to the boundary. He can put a fence up on his side of the boundary. Try and be reasonable and stay calm, he has rights to enjoy his garden as he sees fit, as do the prospective tenants.

wildphotos wrote:We have just noticed a blackbird's nest in the hedge - would he still be allowed to do this work if there are birds nesting?

It's a criminal offence to damage or destroy a nest that is in use, so this should be taken into account when timing the work and carrying it out. Get pictures of the nest with a background to show location just in case. It won't stop a determined fence builder in the short term. Maybe offer to put up a post and wire fence and offer to keep both sides and top trimmed.